Centre tells Supreme Court it’s ready to reduce NEET-SS cutoff to 30%; TN to get 40 vacant seats back

Lowering the qualifying percentile would make 6,000 additional candidates eligible for the proposed special stray vacancy round, the Centre said in a submission to the Supreme Court.

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday proposed reducing the qualifying percentile for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Super Speciality (NEET-SS) seats from the existing 50 percent to 30 percent and agreed to return 40 vacant in-service seats to Tamil Nadu.

The decision came in a Supreme Court case concerning vacant NEET-SS 2025 seats earmarked for doctors serving in the Tamil Nadu government health service and their subsequent diversion to the All India counselling pool. The Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association had challenged the move, arguing that the vacant seats should be returned to the state so they can be filled under its in-service quota.

The case later expanded to the larger issue of vacant Super Speciality seats across the country, as a significant number remained unfilled after the second round of counselling.

“Pursuant to completion of the second round of NEET-SS counselling, 1,857 Super Speciality seats are presently lying vacant, comprising 1,094 DM (Doctorate of Medicine)/MCh (Magister Chirurgiae) seats and 763 DrNB-SS (Doctorate of National Board-Super Speciality) seats,” the Centre said in a submission filed before the court.

Lowering the qualifying percentile would make around 6,000 additional candidates eligible to participate in the proposed special stray vacancy round, the Centre said.

The government said the move was intended “to ensure that the available Super Speciality seats do not remain vacant and that the available training capacity is optimally utilised”.

NEET-SS is the entrance examination for doctors seeking admission to advanced medical and surgical courses after postgraduate medical training.